Pet Insurance for Dogs and Cats

About Pets Best Insurance

If you’re like many pet owners today, you’ll do whatever it takes to keep your pet happy and healthy. Our plans help make that possible by offering reimbursement levels of 70%, 80% or 90%, after a deductible. We also offer a 100% level of reimbursement.

Duke is a sweet-as-pie male German Shorthaired Pointer. In his nine years he has been his owner’s faithful hunting companion, flushing out birds and doing his breed-trademark pointing. He had always been healthy until this last fall, when he seemed to catch a cold and had a snotty nose with mucus discharge and sneezing. Concerned about his depleting pet health, his owners made an appointment with the veterinarian to determine what was wrong.

Dogs don’t typically get sinusitis, or infection of the sinus cavity, without an underlying condition. Usually they get a sinus infection due to some other problem, such as snorting up a grass seed, for example. Duke was an active outside dog; it was possible he could have gotten something stuck up one nostril. In fact, the list of possible underlying causes was relatively short: allergies, foreign body (seed or other plant material most likely), mites, fungal infection, bacterial infection, tooth root infection, and lastly, cancer had to be included.

We decided to tackle the list systematically and treated him for allergies and nasal mites first. When he didn’t respond, we tested for fungal infection by looking for antibodies in his blood to the most common nasal fungi, and treated for bacterial infection. In the meantime Duke seemed happy despite his snotty nose and sneezing.

The fungal test was negative. Duke partially responded to antibiotics, which made him go from having discharge from both nostrils, to only the right nostril. The only causes left on his list of differentials were foreign body, tooth root infection and cancer. Duke’s owners agreed it was time to perform a rhinoscopy and skull and nose radiographs. Because procedures like these can be expensive, it’s always a good idea to have a pet health insurance policy in place. Dog insurance can help make the best pet health care more affordable.

A rhinoscopy is a procedure where a very small camera on the end of a rigid scope is used to examine inside of small cavities, like nostrils, while the patient is asleep. We were hoping to find a grass seed or some other foreign body there, as this would be quite treatable. There was none. Duke’s X-rays showed no tooth root infections that could be communicating with the sinus cavity and no other boney changes in the skull.

Unfortunately, this left cancer as the sole remaining possible reason for Duke’s chronic nasal discharge. His owners loved him and were determined to find the answer, and agreed to advanced imaging, and ordered an MRI of his nose and head. An MRI uses advanced technology to provide a much more detailed image of body tissues, allowing the clinician to visualize soft tissue as well as bone. It also will take the images in ‘slices’ allowing the clinician to visualize small sections of the body part, from the tip of Duke’s nose, through the back of his head.

Much to all of our dismay, Duke’s MRI revealed unequivocally he had a nasal tumor in his right nostril. The most common neoplastic condition in the nose of the dog is an adenocarcinoma. Adenocarcinoma is a malignant neoplasm that can occur in a variety of different tissues. Nasal adenocarcinomas generally carry a poor prognosis without treatment. Duke wouldn’t have long if the owners decided not to go forward with the recommended treatment.

Radiation therapy is the treatment of choice for intranasal carcinomas. About 50% of treated dogs will live longer than 12 to 18 months with a good quality of life. Most dogs tolerate radiation very well, with minimal side effects. Side effects that can occur are usually mild superficial burns secondary to radiation on the skin.

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Duke’s pet health condition isn’t uncommon. Cancer occurs in about 50% of dogs and a third of cats. Veterinary oncology is becoming more and more advanced, keeping up with human medicine, in terms of treating cancer. The biggest road block veterinarians often face, is the acceptance of owners to be financially responsible for costly cancer treatment, and the stigma that radiation and chemotherapy will somehow be cruel. Animals very rarely have the serious side effects of chemotherapy like people do; they don’t lose their hair or their appetites. In fact, owners often can’t tell anything has changed! As more people recognize the value of pet health insurance, hopefully this will allow more people access to lifesaving treatment options for cancer.

Duke’s owners were put in a difficult position. They didn’t have dog insurance for Duke and they had already spent a significant amount of money diagnosing him. Radiation therapy would be an additional $4,000.

Throughout the whole ordeal Duke has been a stellar patient. He never complains, is always happy to be examined, doesn’t mind being poked and prodded. It is unclear how Duke will do long term; his owners are still on the fence about pursuing additional treatment. It is clear Duke is a special part of his family, and he’ll love them either way.

Hi. I’m Dr. Fiona Caldwell, and I’m at home today answering questions from Pet’s Best Facebook page. The first question comes from William. William writes, “My German shepherd likes to bite shoes and the feet of the wearer of the shoes. What can I do about this?”

I can see how this would be an annoying habit. Obviously, a German shepherd’s a big dog, and it’s probably a behavior that should be broken, especially if he’s doing it to children or your friends. I would definitely discipline him. Make sure everyone in the family’s on the same page, that this isn’t a behavior that he’s allowed to do. So when he does it, you tell him “No,” distract him, give him a toy or something that’s appropriate for him to bite and chew on, and then praise him when he directs his attention towards that new toy.

The next question comes from Amy who says, “What is your take on the over- vaccination issue with pets?” This is a really good question, and I think that veterinarians recently have trended towards trying to not over- vaccinate pets as much. We are limited by the manufacturer’s recommendation on the vaccines though. So if the manufacturer only guarantees that that vaccine is going to work for a year, we can only guarantee for you that your pet is not going to become sick from whatever it is that you’re vaccinating within that year. So that’s usually where the numbers come from, one year, two years, three years.

I do think that especially in cats this can be a problem. Cats tend to be a little more sensitive to vaccinations.

Talk with your veterinarian about your concerns, and they can explain to you why they pick however many years it is between vaccines.

If you guys have questions for me, you can post them at Facebook.com/PetsBestInsurance.

Hi, I’m Dr. Fiona Caldwell, and I’m at home today answering questions from Pets Best’s Facebook page. The first question comes from Linda who writes, “I have to take my dog into the vet every two weeks for anal gland expressions or else they leak. Is there anything I can do to prevent this?”

This can be really a frustrating problem. Anal glands are really stinky. They’re basically underdeveloped scent glands that dogs have that are normally used to kind of mark their territories. In a normal dog, a little bit should probably be expressed every time they defecate. For some reason, your dog isn’t doing that the way that it would normally happen. When dogs are really relaxed, sometimes this fluid can leak out a little bit.

Getting the dog in regularly to have the glands emptied is one way that you can keep it from happening. Some other things that you might try, there are some things that you can do to kind of bulk up the stool a little bit so that every time your dog defecates it’s more likely to do sort of some expression and squeezing on its own. Fiber is a good way to do this. Most dogs like canned pumpkin, which is a pretty good source of fiber. You could try that, depending on the size of your dog. You can talk with your veterinarian about how much is appropriate. You could also do human fiber supplements, but, again, talk with your veterinarian about what dose would be appropriate for your dog.

The next question comes from Keshla who says, “Do you recommend premium or holistic foods? Which are better?” This is a really good question. There’s a lot of dog food out there, and it can be hard to know what to buy and what brands to use. A premium dog food generally refers to a dog food that has maybe higher quality ingredients, a little bit more quality control, not as much fillers is in it, whereas a holistic dog food might be more organic, preservative free, hormone free, that type of thing.

I think both types have a great place. I think either one of them are going to be far superior to sort of your grocery store brands that are a little bit less expensive and tend to have a lot of fillers. If the price is too good to be true, it probably really is too good to be true. Whatever works best for your pet and whatever your pet does best on is probably going to be fine, either a premium food or a holistic food.

If you guys have questions for me about your pet, feel free to post them at Facebook.com/PetsBestInsurance.

Now that we’re well into February, and you’re both animal lovers and pet health insurance enthusiasts, you probably know that it’s National Pet Dental Month. You might be surprised that a dog trainer, like myself, would be concerned about the dental health of animals I work with, but the health of your dogs’ teeth is important for many reasons.

Recently I was called out to work with a client whose Basset Hound, Billy, was suddenly exhibiting severe aggression. I worked with Billy as a puppy and periodically when his family wanted him to learn new behaviors. Billy had never exhibited any aggression and had always been a happy, healthy and active dog. I was curious what was causing the sudden aggression. Any time, a dog has a sudden behavior change, my first concern is that there may be a pet health issue.

Often medical issues manifest themselves as behavior issues. While discussing recent events in Billy’s life, I searched for something that may have caused him to become aggressive. One of the children sadly told me that Billy stopped playing with his toys and would not even chew his favorite bones. After thinking about this, Billy’s owner told me they had purchased a cow hoof for Billy. That day Billy chewed on the cow hoof for a while then suddenly stopped chewing. That night he would not eat his dinner and the next day he seemed sad and grumpy, even snapping at one of the kids when they wanted to play with him. That is when they called me.

I recommended the family take Billy to the vet for a dental check-up. Later that day I received a call from the family who reported that Billy had a broken tooth. The veterinarian repaired the dog’s tooth and the aggressive behavior has stopped. Billy was obviously in pain from his broken tooth and a bit grumpy.

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Your dog’s dental health is very important. I recommend you brush your dog’s teeth as recommended by your veterinarian, give your dog good safe dental chews, avoiding chews that are too hard and examine your dog’s mouth daily to make us his teeth are healthy. Since this is Pet Dental Health month, it is a good time to make and appointment to see your vet and have your dog’s teeth checked. Your vet will also help you develop a good plan to keep your dog’s teeth healthy.

Pet insurance coverage offered and administered by Pets Best Insurance Services, LLC is underwritten by Independence American Insurance Company, a Delaware insurance company. Independence American Insurance Company is a member of The IHC Group, an organization of insurance carriers and marketing and administrative affiliates that has been providing life, health, disability, medical stop-loss and specialty insurance solutions to groups and individuals for over 30 years. For information on The IHC Group, visit: www.ihcgroup.com. Additional insurance services administered by Pets Best Insurance Services, LLC are underwritten by Prime Insurance Company. Each insurer has sole financial responsibility for its own products.

Please note: This blog is designed to be a community where pet owners can learn and share. The views expressed in each post are the opinion of the author and not necessarily endorsed by Pets Best Insurance. Always consult your veterinarian for professional advice.